Day 11
Following the Light
My special hope for you is this: that you will always have a great love for truth — the truth about God, the truth about man and the truth about the world. I pray that through truth you will serve humanity and experience real freedom. In the words of Jesus Christ: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
— St. John Paul II, Address, September 11, 1987
Emotions provide the energy we need to take action in life. But they need to be educated so they can move us toward actions that truly contribute to what is best for us and for the world around us. The wild horse needs to be taught to obey its wise rider.
That rider may want to go in the right direction — his or her heart may be in the right place. But what if the rider simply doesn’t know the way to get there? What if the rider’s intelligence lacks the necessary knowledge and light and capacity to recognize the proper landmarks and follow the true path? In that case, it will be impossible to make progress. This is why our Lord singled out this capacity of the human person when he gave us the great commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God . . . with all your mind” (Mark 12:30).
A Darkened Mind
Original sin ruptured the original harmony that God had built into the human family’s relationship with himself, with the created world, and with each other. It also wounded human nature from within, including our spiritual faculties (intelligence and will). Before the Fall, our first parents saw and grasped clearly God’s plan for themselves and for the world. They saw things as God saw them.
Then, after the Fall, humanity became “subject to ignorance,” as the Catechism puts it (CCC, 405). The world became a place full of shadows and threats. God became distant and mysterious, and religion degenerated, in most cases, into fear-inspired superstition. The human person became a puzzle to himself; the true meaning of human life, our origin, our purpose, and our path to achieve that purpose, became shrouded in darkness. Mankind became lost in a labyrinth of confusion that our own rebellion against God had constructed. St. Paul reveals the starkness of the situation, commenting on the persistent wickedness of a fallen race:
For although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes. Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:21–25)
The Coming of the Light
An essential ingredient in God’s plan for redeeming such a benighted human family, therefore, was light — the light of truth. The story of salvation includes a gradual, gentle, and glorious revelation of the truth about God, the world, and ourselves. This revelation began immediately after the fall of our first parents, continued and developed throughout the history of the Old Covenant, and reached its culmination in the incarnation, life, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The New Covenant in Jesus, also known as the New Testament, explains and brings to fulfillment all that went before in the Old Testament. In Christ, we have been given new access to the truth that our minds were created to discover, explore, and grasp. We have been shown a sure path out of the deadening ignorance that forms part of the inheritance of sin: “I am the light of the world,” Jesus proclaimed (and he certainly proclaimed it with a beaming and inviting smile, not with a fierce and ferocious frown); “whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
The Deepest Questions
Who are we? Where do we come from? What is our purpose? What will make us truly happy? Why is there evil in the world? How can we live life to the full? What happens after death? How are we supposed to deal with the challenges and sufferings of life?
Mankind has posed these questions throughout its turbulent history. They are the basic questions of the human mind, because they respond to the fundamental human need and desire to know the truth — not just a few individual truths, like the laws of physics and the contents of our neighbor’s cupboards, but the truth, the way things are. Until we know that, or at least some key elements of it, we cannot be completely free to flourish as God means us to; our minds remain unfulfilled, groping in the dark.
Since human nature is always the same, these questions are always the same. Every epoch, every culture, every religion has to face them. We are compelled by our own nature to answer these questions somehow, for the good of our minds, just as we are compelled by our own nature to find food and shelter for the good of our bodies.
The Fullest Answer
This is the real reason why the different religions seem so similar when they are looked at from certain perspectives: They all seek to give answers to the same basic questions that come with our fallen human nature. And some of the answers that the different religions and philosophies offer contain shards of the truth, because our minds are made to find truth, and we can indeed find some truth through sincere searching. St. Paul also made this point in his discussion about the wickedness of idolatry:
Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse. (Romans 1:20)
And yet, if our own efforts were sufficient, Jesus would never have had to come to give us his revelation. Only in that revelation do we have access to the fullness of truth that we crave and are created for, the truth that will free us from darkness and allow us to live life abundantly, now and for all eternity:
Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)
As the Catechism instructs us, human reason unaided by the light of revelation will always remain, at some level, frustrated (see CCC, 37-38). Learning to love God with all our mind — coming to know, understand, and accept deeply all that he has revealed to us about himself, ourselves, and the world — is the path out of that frustration. We cannot truly seek God’s kingdom without following it.
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
What idea in this reflection struck you most and why?
Recall the time in your life when you first began to ask deeper questions. Are you still hungry for the truth that will set you free? Why or why not?
How well do you know the truths that God has revealed to you through Christ? Have you ever tried to explain the gospel to someone who hasn’t heard it yet? If not, would you be able to do so?
St. Dominic, the medieval founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers, required a radical poverty from his first members. They weren’t allowed to own anything at all, either individually or corporately. They were to travel by foot, spreading the gospel. The only exception to their extreme austerity was books. He wanted all his men to be able to take their books with them wherever they went so they could constantly renew and deepen their knowledge of God’s saving Word.
What will you do today to deepen your knowledge of God’s revelation?
- I will make a list of questions I have about the faith and then make an appointment to talk to a priest or expert about them.
- I will read the testimony of a non-Catholic who converted to Catholicism. (A resource for such testimonies is The Coming Home Network, www.chnetwork.org/converts.)
- (Write your own resolution) I will
Concluding Prayer
Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, lofty origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your brilliance penetrate into the darkness of my understanding and take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of both sin and ignorance. Give me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations, and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in completion; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
— St. Thomas Aquinas
